Volvo: Heavy Trucks of the Future Will Be Super-Light - VIDEO
STORY

STOCKHOLM - June 24, 2009: The Volvo Group’s engineers have created a method for constructing
trucks that weigh less while carrying the same loads. Lighter vehicles would entail a significant
reduction in fuel consumption and thus carbon dioxide emissions.

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To date, lightweight technology has mainly been used in Volvo Aero’s
aircraft engine components, but engineers at AB Volvo’s research
company, Volvo Technology, foresee favorable opportunities in using
similar technology to reduce the weight of the cab and chassis in
heavy
trucks by at least 20% within ten years.

“We are creating the super-light vehicle in a computer program that
simulates how hundreds of thousands of small construction alterations
can reduce the vehicle’s total weight without affecting other key
characteristics in the vehicle, such as crashworthiness or the
ability
to bear loads,” says Carl Fredrik Hartung, Project Manager at Volvo
Technology.

A lighter vehicle, regardless of whether it is a truck or a bus, can
be
powered by a smaller engine. If the lighter vehicle is equipped with
an
engine powered by renewable fuel, or hybrid solutions in which the
diesel engine is jointly powered with an electric motor, then fuel
consumption and thus carbon emissions can be further reduced.

One of the challenges is that a super-light vehicle must be
constructed
partly with more expensive materials that are highly durable, which
means that the vehicle must be manufactured in volumes that are
sufficiently large for the cost to be kept down.

“It is important to conduct thorough computer simulations and
standardize the manufacturing process so that it will be profitable
to
manufacture lighter vehicles for commercial use. We have come a long
way
but a great deal of work remains before the first super-light
vehicles
hit the road,” says Carl Fredrik Hartung.